On preparation and other such daemons.
aewaite17,
I hear what you have to say and you make some serious points indeed.
I cannot comment whether there is an innate basis for information processesing as I simply don't know anything about it. I agree though that we all come with a genetic predisposition that it will (or will not) manifest given appropriae stimulus and education.
I personally had no clue about spatial awareness as I never had to use it in my previous work placements. And indeed, I found the cubes at stage 1 extremely difficult, but after spending 2 weeks before the exam trying to figure out how they work, using my own models and with the valuable input of some people here, I went to the Stage 1 exam and found it a piece of cake. It took me lots of time and effort to break through the cubes but one I had crossed that threshold I felt that I had made that knowledge mine and that it was there to stay.
I agree, not everyone can be an ATC. It a very demanding job from many different point of views. Still, I personally see the whole process of going through the stages as a way of testing myself against the process too, my capacity to learn, to stretch outside of my confort zone, to engage with a subject completely foreign up until now, to check my capacity to keep on going when trying to understand those cubes and they seemed to occupy most of my mind in waking and at sleep...what I am trying to say in other words is that it is a learning curve and in the process you learn about yourself, your limitations and how you can work through obstacles to reach the goal. Not everyone will get there (and the good thing is that here you compete against yourself and not others) but there is merit in trying as there is a lot to learn.
When I talk about a form of eliticism I don't generalise the whole group of ATCO, whether trainees or validated ATCO (the ones I have met seemed very humble and sober to say the least). I am talking specifically about some (very few) people here that they proclaim the "you either have it or you don't" approach on the basis of doing very little preparation and being successful in what seems to be a very challenging and difficult assessment process. Those are indeed the "lucky" ones that perhaps through a combination of genetics or circumstance, they seemed geared to the role of the ATCO and thus do really well in the assessment. For the rest of us, the show must go on and we will resort to the qualities of discipline, effort, perseverance, hard work, optimism and mother fortuna to take us there...